Continuing our series on the world's best beaches, Matthew Teller heads to
Gozo's popular and pristine Ramla Bay.

Known in Maltese as Ramla il-Hamra (“Red Sands”), this is the biggest sandy beach on Gozo – a curving bay of fiery-coloured sands flanked by twin rocky headlands and backed by dunes thick with tamarisk and bamboo.

Who goes?

Everyone. Ramla’s size and natural beauty – as well as its soft sand and clear, shallow water – draw in local families as well as holidaymakers from the seaside resort of Marsalforn, which occupies the next bay to the west.

Not much, other than swim and soak up the rays alongside a statue of the Virgin Mary, placed on the beach atop a chunky white plinth in 1881 in commemoration of a local shipwreck. The cliffs above the western corner of the beach shelter Calypso’s Cave, one of many Maltese nooks identified as the spot where Odysseus spent seven years holed up with the temptress Calypso. If you make the climb, the only thing to admire is the view.

Bars and bites

Ramla has virtually no development: all you’ll find are the odd ice-cream van, perhaps a vendor selling prickly pears and a few summer-only snack kiosks at the back of the beach. Stop in at the first one, run by Rozi, to sample her delicious Gozitan ftira (rather like a crusty pizza, topped with potatoes, anchovies, tomatoes and olives).

Getting there

There’s an infreqent summer bus service from Gozo’s capital, Rabat, but otherwise no public transport. The walk from the nearest town, Nadur, is around two miles, or it’s a straightforward drive of 20 minutes from the Malta-Gozo ferry dock at Mgarr.